Due to the limited reserves of fossil fuels and worries about emission of greenhouse gasses there is an increasing focus on using renewable energy sources. Production of fermentation products from lignocellulose-containing material is known in the art and conventionally includes pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation of the lignocellulose-containing material. Pretreatment results in the release of degradation products from the lignocellulose-containing material that may irreversibly bind and inhibit enzymes added during hydrolysis and fermentation. These compounds may also be toxic to the fermenting organism's metabolism and inhibit the performance of the fermenting organism.
Detoxification by steam stripping has been suggested but it is a cumbersome and a costly additional process step. It has also been suggested to wash the pretreated lignocellulose-containing material before hydrolysis. However, the inhibitors often have low solubility and recycling of the wash water is only possible to a very limited extend due to build-up of the inhibitors. Washing therefore requires huge amounts of water.
Consequently, there is a need for providing processes for detoxifying pretreated lignocellulose-containing material to obtain substrates suitable for hydrolysis and fermentation.